


The Prize

by koanju (verstehen)



Category: Serenity (2005)
Genre: Character of Color, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-27
Updated: 2009-12-27
Packaged: 2017-10-05 08:04:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verstehen/pseuds/koanju
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River's job was keeping them flying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Prize

"Captain –" Zoe stopped in the doorway. River heard her breathing, in out in out, softly like a regular heartbeat, like drums, like someone hiding.

"Captain's not here," she said, not breaking contact with the stars, not moving her eyes from the comforting black, even as she languidly moved her legs locked at the knees off the console. "Captain went to bed." Now she turned, still holding her prize in her hands. It was bumpy and rigid and red and hard and it smelled faintly of sweat and laughter and all River had to do was breathe in and out in out and shut her eyes to see and hear the whispers and fragments. The cockpit was only the same that way.

River wondered if it was the same for Zoe.

"I made him go to bed," she said, folding her fingers around her prize. "Like a doll that's been bad at a tea party. I shook my finger at him." She demonstrated with her toes, not wanting to relinquish the heat between her fingers. She liked her toes. They were white and lightly hair and calloused. She didn't feel surfaces the same anymore. Serenity had ruined that for her. In a good way. A safe way.

Zoe just nodded and turned to go. "Here," River offered her prize, because it was really Zoe's prize and Zoe's whispers. "This belongs to you. He didn't leave it behind; we left him behind." It hurt, like a brother, but not her brother because River had protected him. "I miss him. He was red."

Red was the color of life.

"Thank you," Zoe said, taking the tiny plastic dinosaur-sized memorial in her hands. Her voice didn't shake. Her hands didn't shake. River felt Zoe's insides shake and firm all in an instant. "I'll talk to the Captain in the morning."

River nodded and slid back around. Handling that shake was Mal's job.

River's job was keeping them flying.


End file.
